Language: ‘untranslatable’ words tell us more about English speakers than other cultures

phonaesthemes:

“While careful experimentation has shown that having words for concepts makes them easier or faster to name, it is not true that lacking a concept means you cannot conceive of it, and vice versa. (…)

At worst, this results in racism. The Hopi people of Arizona, who are sometimes claimed to have no way to express time based on a misunderstanding of Benjamin Lee Whorf’s work on their language, were assumed by some to be incapable of following bus timetables or arriving at work on schedule, a mistaken belief that led to obvious problems.

But even an apparently benign conclusion about how some Australian languages encode space with compass directions(“north”) rather than ego-relative position (“my left-hand side”) suggests English speakers often miss out on knowledge about language and cognition because they are busy measuring things against an arbitrary English-centric benchmark. Different language conventions are usually not exotic or unusual; it’s just that English speakers come from a position of very great privilege because their language is the default. People who speak other languages are seen as different, as outsiders.” (emphasis mine)

bunny-butch:

bunny-butch:

Having a halfway decent relationship with your abusive parent during adulthood is so weird. Its like, “oh mom, you’re so funny and cute! You violated me and made my childhood a living nightmare, causing trauma that I will never recover from, but nowadays you’re just a barrel of laughs!”

Like, its so great bc as parent and child you share a lot of mannerisms and personality traits, you’ve got a lot of in jokes, you just also have the heart wrenching awareness that this person will never, ever apologize for how they have victimized you, or even just admit to it

lovesforeverblind:

satanstrousers:

Adulthood is wanting to cry for 4 days straight but not having the time

Gotta schedule my breakdowns now

witchoffires:

witchoffires:

witchoffires:

my little sister just found out at school that you can create a religion and wants me to help her turn Halloween into a year long religion. And i never knew i wanted this until now. We will be the Halloween Cult. I am so ready for this.

My sister came up with some cult rules.

Do not deny the spooky.

Be nice to children.

Don’t be pressuring others into the religion, if they don’t want to hear leave them alone.

Every second Wednesday of each month is Pumpkin Worship, that is when you eat pumpkin flavored things, carve pumpkins, or burn pumpkin spice scented candles. Just embrace the pumpkin.

Don’t be mean to other people for reasons they can’t control, but hey if they are doing it on purpose just to annoy you, destroy them.

No touch other people if they don’t want you to, this includes hair.

Halloween is a holy day, embrace it and become one with the spooky.

Costumes are an everyday thing, but sometimes it can be inappropriate, be aware of when to embrace the spooky and when to just be a little spooky.

Don’t let anyone tell you you can’t be spooky, and if they do tell you then they don’t know what they’re talking about. You can be all the spooky all you want.

Be nice to animals.

Be ready to help others when you can but still remember that you need to put your needs first.

You are spooky, you are amazing, you are fabulous. Say it.

idk but i think we need more, go ask you internet nerd friends.

can yall think of anything else?

OKay i asked her how one would join the cult and she said to light a jack-o-lantern on a full moon then yodel into the night for the pumpkin king and if he approves you, you will hear someone yell “stut the fuck up” then you are part of the cult.

have fun yodeling my friends

arandomthot:

Everything’s cute until you check the price tag

awwdish:

I hate it when parents say “oh, he’s an emotional boy” like no he’s fuckin not Susan he’s experiencing normal human emotion and expressing it in a healthy way you fucking wined out church bake sale having fruitcake

vaantablack:

‘man doesn’t know how to take care of the child he helped create’ ads Do Not Warm My Heart.

in2006:

Someone: you should come to this party!
Me: I have an exam in 2 months

edwad:

i only type in lowercase because i hate capitalism

magatronix:

kceyagi:

its-a-harlequinade:

manintolerant:

Eldest sisters r the most oppressed

hey yall dumb fucks reblogging this and yapping about how, ur life is actually super hard as a younger sibling…

the ‘eldest sisters are oppressed’ thing is based on the fact that the oldest girls in many families are, a lot of the time, drafted into watching her younger siblings to the point that shes more of a young third parent than a kid anymore. shes expected to be incredibly responsible while her younger siblings get to make mistakes. she get to do more housework than her father because apparently men shouldn’t have to watch laundry.

op is obviously referring to the ways in which older sisters ( nope not brothers) are forced into maternal roles by both society and their parents for a number of reasons, not limited to society’s insistence that they must learn to become mothers early. theres also the fact that many families both need and cant afford childcare. this idea that an oldest sister is free childcare is bullshit.

There’s a book called “The Eldest Daughter Effect” that goes into detail about this. And it applies to the oldest daughter so even if the oldest child is a boy and the second child is a daughter, she is the one who ends up getting all that extra pressure and responsibilities for younger siblings.

*sips tea* Sounds about right.